1993

32 To Tame the Wild Winds 1993 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets 2 Horns 2 Bassoons 9mTo Tame the Wild Winds belongs to a set of my pieces that are derived from a thirteen beat rhythm: 213232. As with Web of Indra, the number series generates the overall form of the piece as well as much of its internal detail. The Indian connection comes through the idea of Indra's Web: a net of jewels described in Hindu Mythology, in which each jewel reflects the entire structure of the web. The work was commissioned for highly competent young performers and was intended to introduce them gradually to increasingly complex repetitive rhythms within a basically tonal harmonic framework. The title, which seemed highly appropriate given the brief, comes from Arjuna's questioning words from the Bhagavad Gita. The mind is restless, Krishna, impetuous, self-willed, hard to train: to master the mind seems as difficult as to tame the wild winds.

31 Phase Matrix 1993 t. sax, e. guitar, mba, vcl, perc. and synth 7mPhase Matrix comes from a period when I was exploring the potential of using a nine digit ‘cypher’ to generate the rhythmic, pitch and structural organisation of my music at several levels. The cypher [532214451] adds to a total of 27 units. In Phase Matrix the smallest rhythmic unit is the semi-quaver meaning that a complete rhythmic statement of the cypher can be given in 3 x 9/16 bars. Sections created in this way form the smallest structural unit of the piece [the 5th and 9th sections respectively]. The longest section [1 and 8] are 17 bars in length and subdivide internally into yet another statement of the cypher proportions [ie 5bars 3bars 2bars etc]. Similar processes in each section give the work a fractal nature - where the same proportions determine the small-, middle- and large-scale structure of the work. Phase Matrix was written for Magnetic Pig.

30 Web of Indra 1993 s.sax, e. guitar, mba, vcl, perc. and kbd 9m Web of Indra [1992] takes its title from a Hindu legend mentioned in an interview with Joseph Campbell I heard on the radio. The 'Web of Indra' of legend is a matrix of jewels in which each jewel contains a reflection of the entire web. The metaphor very nicely described the musical structure of the piece I was writing and since I was also experimenting with some South Indian-influenced ideas of altering melodic, rhythmic (and harmonic) tempi independently it seemed highly appropriate. Like the mythical Indra’s Web, the work has a fractal structure in that the overall form of the music has the same proportions as the elements it is made from: the rhythms, melodies, harmonies etc. Fractals are forms that display the quality of self-similarity – the same kind of structures at every scale.

A simple example is the Koch Snowflake, which is built by starting with an equilateral triangle, removing the inner third of each side, building another equilateral triangle at the location where the side was removed, and then repeating the process indefinitely.